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The Keep:Anxiety Alliance
Do you suffer from anxiety, either generally or in specific situations? You are not alone! Diagnosed, undiagnosed, chronic or occasional, all are welcome to a supportive environment where we can talk about our experiences and share techniques for relaxation and anxiety management. Feel free to visit the guild on Habitica! Guild Challenges Conquer the Scary Thing! We all have a few things we've been putting off because they're scary, awkward, uncomfortable, or triggering. But if it's something that needs to get done soon, hopefully this challenge will provide some extra incentive! Meditation This is a simple challenge asking you to spend at least five minutes a day on meditation - you can do any technique you find appealing, or you can try a lot of different techniques and see what works for you! There is an optional guild share where you can tell us how things are going, or if you found a helpful technique or soundtrack. Guild Resource Toolbox Welcome! If you'd like suggestions on utilizing Habitica for anxiety and depression, feel free to start with this wiki page. Recommended Apps/Sites Animated GIF for Deep Breathing - If you have anxiety, take deep breaths in sync with this. Stop, Breathe & Think - The Stop, Breathe and Think app is a free mindfulness, meditation and compassion-building tool that is simple, fun and easy to use. Check in to how you are thinking and feeling, and select emotions that guide you to recommended meditations. Headspace - Headspace is meditation made simple. Learn online, when you want, wherever you are, in just 10 minutes a day. Calm - With Calm for iOS and Android, you’ll discover how simple meditation really is, and how taking a few moments out of your day can make you happier and healthier. Scream Into The Void - For those dealing with temper issues, this might be a way to just get something off your chest. Pixel Thoughts - A 60-second meditation tool to help clear your mind. Insight Timer - With over 2,000 guided meditations and a highly customizable timer function, Insight Timer is home to more than 1,100,000 meditators. Wysa - An "emotionally intelligent" chatbot that helps you track and manage your mood and learn techniques based on CBT and mindfulness. Wysa can passively sense how you're doing and reach out to you if it thinks you need help. Shine - Shine works by sending you daily texts to encourage you to make progress. You can set a goal, get tips and see your progress (and other people's as well). Pacifica - Daily tools for stress and anxiety alongside a supportive community. Based on CBT & meditation. Abide - Transform your life with guided Christian meditation. Tide - Sleep. Focus. Relax. Meditation. Be calm and mindful with nature. Youper - Through quick conversations, Youper helps you monitor and take control of your emotional health. Worksheets Self-Care Flowchart (language advisory in the hyperlink/tab text) - Recommended by multiple Anxiety Alliance! members, this is meant to be an interactive flow chart for people who struggle with self care, executive dysfunction, and/or who have trouble reading internal signals. It's designed to take as much of the weight off of you as possible, so each decision is very easy and doesn't require much judgment. Self-paced modules for various types of anxiety - If you suffer from a condition that is affecting your mental health and are looking for specific information about different types of problems then the information packages here may be relevant to you. The InfoPax consist of a number of modules that you can complete online, or you can save the modules to your computer and work through them onscreen in your own time. Change Negative Thinking Patterns - When bad things happen in our lives, it’s normal to have negative thoughts – like expecting the worst, or seeing the worst in people or situations. If you can identify thinking patterns you may have, and challenge the ones that are not helpful, you can open yourself up to new and different ways of looking at the situation, which can help you feel better. Learning (And Other Resources) What is meditation? - Meditation is a family of mental exercises that generally involve sitting quietly and comfortably while focusing on some simple internal or external stimulus, such as a word, one's breathing pattern, or a visual object. How meditation helps anxiety - You’ve probably heard or read that meditation is helpful for anxiety. It is — but not in the way you might think. 9 ways to make meditation a daily habit - Here's a great piece that appeared on the Headspace blog regarding suggestions on making meditation a daily habit. 7 best YouTube guided meditations (by Mindful Muscle) - Whether for breathing, anxiety, chakra-clearing, sound techniques, or mindfulness, one of these videos could be a solid starting point for you. TED Radio Hour: Quiet (November 21, 2014) - In this episode, we explore ways to find quiet in our busy lives. How can we step back and make time to reflect in an increasingly distracted and hurried world? 13 charts that will make total sense to people with impostor syndrome (Buzzfeed) - “Impostor syndrome” is that feeling where — even if you get good grades, good jobs, accomplish things, have special talents, and people compliment you — you feel like you’re tricking everyone and you’re actually not good at anything. The path to unconditional self-acceptance - How do you fully accept yourself when you don't know how? Meditation for beginners - 20 practical tips for understanding the mind. Emotional Abuse You're Not Going Crazy: How "Gaslighting Erodes Your Sanity" - What is gaslighting, with examples, signs and advice. Where You Born Under the Gaslight? - Four types of parent/family gaslighting explained. How to Tell if You're Being Manipulated - Signs of manipulation in an abusive relationship. Mothers and Verbal Abuse: A Poisonous Secret - A short article about the effects of verbal abuse in a mother/children relationship. On being emotionally abused as a kid and making others angry: "Developing the ability to piss other people off (or even to RISK pissing them off) without knuckling under is pretty much the Holy Grail of emotionally abused kids, I think. We are programmed to respond at the first sign of displeasure, and we don’t have the faith in ourselves and our decisions to weather the storm– or even a mild sprinkle– so we tend to freak out as if the world was ending if a cloud crosses the sun. We freak out about the possibility that we’re wrong, that we’re doing the wrong things, that we’re making the wrong choices, that we’ll make someone angry, because there’s this awful certainty lurking at the back of our minds that says “If you do the wrong thing, you will be in TROUBLE.” And being in TROUBLE is the worst thing, ever, because that part of our brain is forever three years old where our parents are our whole world and being in TROUBLE is the end of everything. It takes a lot of practice to gain that sort of gut-level knowledge that we’re strong enough to handle this stuff and that the world doesn’t end if someone else is angry at us. It’s not an innate quality that some people have and some don’t; people who grow up in non-abusive homes learn it when they’re young, is all, and the rest of us have to learn it when we’re grown up. And it sucks, and it’s not fair, and it’s not fun, but there’s no getting around it, and you can do it, you CAN. You can piss people off. You can be wrong. You can mess up. You can do stuff that everyone thinks is weird. AND IT IS ALL OKAY. The world won’t end. You will still be a good person. And the likelihood is that most of the things you do WON’T be wrong, and WON’T piss people off, and WON’T be mistake, and WON’T be weird, but if it is? The heck with it; fix it, if necessary, and move on." - PomperaFirpa @ CaptainAwkward . On toxic parents and love: "Most adult children of toxic parents grow up feeling tremendous confusion about what love means and how it’s supposed to feel. Their parents did extremely unloving things to them in the name of love. They came to understand love as something chaotic, dramatic, confusing, and often painful—something they had to give up their own dreams and desires for. Obviously, that’s not what love is all about. Loving behavior doesn’t grind you down, keep you off balance, or create feelings of self-hatred. Love doesn’t hurt, it feels good. Loving behavior nourishes your emotional well-being. When someone is being loving to you, you feel accepted, cared for, valued, and respected. Genuine love creates feelings of warmth, pleasure, safety, stability, and inner peace." - Susan Forward, Toxic Parents: Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy and Reclaiming Your Life , p381. Helpful Guild Member Advice On Studying for Exams @Peridot: #It's not the end of the world if you don't pass. It's just an exam. #Take breaks while studying. Cramming is a terrible, terrible idea. #Just because you feel like you don't remember stuff, doesn't actually mean that you won't be able to remember during the exam. Confidence is key! #Stop all the mind reading. Even though you think everyone feels and is doing better than you, that's not true. You'd be surprised at the number of people who struggle in exams. They're definitely more than you imagine. #It's just ONE day. It'll be over before you notice. #Reward yourself! No matter the results. Once you're finished, go ahead and do something nice. Buy yourself a chocolate. Watch that film you've been putting off. Do something that makes you feel happy. #Good luck!! @Aust: #Prepare well, but take the night before off, and make sure to get a good night's sleep. It feels like I forget more than I learn by studying the night before. #Bring the same things as to give a sense of familiarity no matter the location of the test. In my case it's usually a water bottle, a apple, two pencils, an eraser and a sharpener. No candy as it gives me a blood sugar rise and subsequent fall. And if it's a long test with breaks I make sure to bring at least as many fruits as I have breaks. I can't concentrate if I'm hungry :) And having a bite makes for a nice break from the test if it starts getting overwhelming. #Shut your ears. Some people manage their nervousness before the exam by rubbing it off on everybody else, by non stop talking about how ill prepared they are, how ill they slept, how badlt the test is going to go for them...You don't have to be polite and listen. Do your own thing, or, if possible, chat with someone about something completely unrelated. #If all else fails and I during the exam feel that familiar lightheadedness that precedes a panic attack, I hold on to the armrests of the chair to keep me grounded in reality and focus on breathing deep calm breaths. Category:The Armory Category:Guilds